Mushing roundup: Iditarod

The Iditarod hasn't reached the shake-out point yet, but there are no real surprises in the top 10 front running teams, except perhaps for who's not there: Lance Mackey.

The Iditarod hasn't reached the shake-out point yet, but there are no real surprises in the top 10 front running teams, except perhaps for who's not there: Lance Mackey. The reported leaders as of Wednesday morning were John Baker, Hans Gatt, Cim Smyth, Ramey Smyth, Dallas Seavey, Martin Buser, Michelle Phillips, Jeff King, Mitch Seavey, and Sebastian Schnuelle, but there's a lot of trail ahead of the mushers, and the real shuffle and push for the lead won't happen for a couple more days.

Bruce Lee made some good observations on the Iditarod's Eye on the Trail blog:

"Looking at the current standing list will give you a feel for the speeds of the different teams relative to each other but what you can't see is how the dogs are eating and what their attitude seems to be." Lee then shared a few observations about the front running teams at Takotna:

Helen Hegener/Northern Light Media photo

Musher Sven Haltmann of Fairbanks

-- Jeff King seems to be having one of those "magic carpet ride" runs.

-- Hugh Neff is upbeat and is also posting fast run times.

-- Lance Mackey's team came into Takotna like a freight train.

-- John Baker's team looks rock solid.

-- Sebastian Schnuelle had energy and his dogs are just as upbeat.

-- Sven Haltmann's dogs ate like a bunch of alligators.

Over the next few days there will be some juggling for position, and definitely a little musher gamesmanship among the fastest and strongest teams. The frequently updated Iditarod Leaderboard tells the tale as the teams move up the trail.

Cooling off

A good collection of Iditarod ceremonial and restart photos can be found at Northern Light Media, and Donna Quante, an Emmy-Award winning photographer whose Husky Productions has made three mushing-related videos, has uploaded video footage of many of the mushers crossing Long Lake in Willow, a couple of miles down the trail from the restart. More photos, videos, and additional race coverage can also be found at Go Mush, KTUU, the Anchorage Daily News and of course the Iditarod race site. Alaska Dispatch has fielded a team to closely track this year's race, including Twitter feeds and reports from trail veterans. Joe Runyan and Craig Medred have added an insider's perspective, with Joe tracking the front of the race and Craig following the back-of-the-packers. Runyan wrote on Wednesday morning that he "muscled through the online data for some mental exercise, called a few fans, and came to the following conclusions..." and he then shares some astute observations about the front-running contenders.